Westy Steve

Two bulls and I still got 11 points. That first book destroyed me.

I just put this set together. Looks so great in Mylar!

OK, I know I'm "overcommenting"...sorry. Anyway, I'm not tenaciously married to my belief/position. But as for me, I was definitely the young professional with lots of money to spend on comics...(had every silver age marvel key). Then for the last two decades, I've been the middle-aged guy with kids who had to slow down my collecting. But in the meantime, I've been paying off my house, I bought my obligatory classic car, I've invested into my retirement, and I've bought every type of appliance,, tool or doodad for my house that a family/person could need. In a few years, my kids will be out of college, and I'll once again find myself with more money to spend and a secure retirement. So for me personally, since I will already have most everything a reasonable person wants/needs, I'll probably ramp up my spending. Of course, I'll need to do that to buy back the stuff I sold off to all you lucky bachelors.

You could be right, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that the kid who started reading Action Comics at issue #25 might have been willing to pay a slight premium to get the first issue to read Superman's origin...especially when it wasn't available in any other format (except a recap). Or perhaps, they wanted to put together a set of every Batman comic. I think premiums existed...they were just very small.

PopK, First, this is a cool book and it's uncommon...I wouldn't mind picking this up for my collection: Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica #111 FN- 5.5 1965 | eBay I'm not meaning to be argumentative, but I'd like to give a counterpoint. I collect coins. You want to talk about upside down demographics?...coin collecting is your baby. I remember going to coin shows in my late 40's and realizing I was the youngest there. And yet, that hobby continued chugging along. Do you know why? Because like many of the collectors here, they continue to collect until their death. Also...Unlike coins, where a low mintage coin was minted in the 10's of thousands, or 100's of thousands, many surviving desirable comics can number in the dozens or at least less than 100. The reality is that there are just so few of the really good books out there for them to drop significantly in value until we're so old that we don't know what day it is or who our nurse is. I have complete faith in the demographics (or lack thereof), because I read the 20 and 25 cent books that I found back in the day, but today I'm collecting 10 cent books like Betty and Veronica that I never ran across in my youth. Realistically, almost nobody here had a chance to buy my Superman #5 in low, low, grade, off the stands, but they wouldn't kick it out of bed if the price was right because we all start out collecting the (more common) books we had as kids, and as our tastes become more refined, we start chasing things that we weren't even exposed to in our youth. And we'll continue to do it until death.

The key word in your question above is "experience". Comic book prices have been moving up for more than 80 years, so anyone with experience is going to give you the same answer. Historically, the only time it ever made sense to bet against the 80+ year trend was in the short term. But you're asking about the long term. Furthermore, at no time in the entire history of comic book collecting, was it a bad idea to buy on the dip. So my own person logic is not to bet against the market. All that being said, my analysis is based on the classic books. Not the flavor of the month in a 9.8 slab. However, I've been around long enough to see even some of the "Hot dreck" go cold, and then get hot again a couple decades later as people feel nostalgic about the old dreck that they speculated on in their teen years.

I gotta say, I’m not a big fan of Ghost Rider necessarily, but the covers are always spectacular bursts of color.

Interesting. I didn’t know about them. I assumed they were all in the box.

Let’s do it. Sign me up please.

These are so great! Each one I look at is just begging to be read. Good stuff!

Hey guys, Lately I've been gravitating towards collecting nicer Marvel 20 centers. If I had to guess why, it would be because those were the oldest comics I could find at the flea markets when I first started collecting and they tended to be beat up, so I find the higher grade ones somewhat "jarring"...more so than older books in higher grade preserved in slabs. It helps that there is a good pleasure for the buck ratio associated with buying them...enough to make them harder for me to sell (often not worth selling). I love Bronze age books...but perhaps I subliminally associate the 15 centers more with silver age. I'm not sure. I can say that the closest I get to this feeling is when I see 12 centers in higher grade also...perhaps because I had one beat up old Iron Man...but I digress. The 20 cent era seems to me to be some of the most put together comics, like when Marvel (in particular) was really hitting a stride with a relatively fleshed out universe, and so many crazy ideas were floating around with the relaxing of the comics code. A cohesive universe was expanding monthly with new entrants. And the covers had just the right amount of action and color. Again, I don't know why I like them...I just do. I just bought this beauty (seller's photo). I'm not too concerned whether the grade starts with an 8 or a 9...I know it will look amazing in mylar (apologies to our host) and it will drip nostalgia for me. I considered another book with the same grade for a slightly lower price, but the "2" in "20" was wrapping around the spine...and I wanted to see the whole "20" for that nostalgic rush. Oh, and don't run out and buy all you can...there are far too many of them...just appreciate them for what they are. So, yeah...show me your cool 20 centers.

Did you sell this? Sending PM.

Cross posted in the Are prices easing up a bit? thread. This sold in about 1 day on EBay. Kind of surprised me.

Ok, this can’t be any more off topic than what’s transpired here lately. But this comicbook adjacent sale surprised me. Was going to post this in the hidden paperback thread, but it’s relevant here. This sold within a day or so. Very strong money for this book.

Thank you sir! Pm me proof of payment and your address.

Daredevil 3. VG. Impact in the center that was massaged out with a press. Proof of $150 payment to the Drew family. I have daughters graduating from Highschool and college right now…buy the Drew’s graduating Seniors something nice with the proceeds.

I wonder what the gross will be after this weekend?

I like to set up as a dealer at comic book shows to sell comics and video games. When I first started doing that, not many people were interested in the games. Over the last couple years it became apparent that it was not possible to buy games in cardboard boxes anymore (in the wild). Most all of my boxed games came from a single collector who was meticulous with his boxes. Then I started to add to that collection with mint in box games. Today, I can only get the later generation games in the plastic clam shells (in the wild). I still sell those, but I’ve been noticing that it’s been harder and harder to find those at flea markets and thrift stores so now I’m going out of my way to try to buy collections to resell. Some of my old “cardboard box” inventory (below) still has price stickers on them but those stickers are going to be removed. Not really interested in selling any of my boxed games anymore. At this point they are a hoard that I’m slowly adding to.

Yep. By the picture/chart of IG181 above, nicer Bronze might be under priced. When markets correct, they overshoot to they downside

People are going to have to learn to grade, put the books in Mylar, and sell local for cash. Look for more comic-centric shows to pop up moving forward. It’s the good old days all over again.

I’m in. Maybe I’ll have better luck this time.

A couple of thoughts: I liked that this movie didn’t rely on Orcs and Goblins. The monsters were varied like the game. I also liked how the dialogue mirrored the kinds of conversations you might hear during a D&D game…”Exactly Five questions? That sounds kind of arbitrary”.

I used to have a mantra in a market upswing that “the perception becomes the reality”. In an upward moving market, if the fair market price is $1,000 and some fellow prices his at $1,200 under the delusion that it’s worth his price, a desperate buyer may eventually buy it if they can’t find a cheaper copy and that sets the market price. If the weak hands sell, leaving only delusional sellers, that could become the new floor. The complication is they won’t sell anything as the market stabilizes. All boils down to the mood of the sellers…are they willing to hold the line? I am fortunate that I’ve been swapping out my Bronze Age books and even my late silver age works for early silver and gold merge stuff so this downturn isn’t really bothering me much. But I do have a copy of the first appearance of iron fist. That book has dropped so much that when I consider selling it to buy more golden age I looked at the price of it and just decided that I’d rather keep it than sell it at those prices. The books I most regret selling the most are those I sold too cheap. An X-men 94 for $50. A low grade X-men 1 for $150, etc. I can’t regret selling expensive books for big $$$. After seeing prices for MP15, I started thinking about upgrading since prices are so low. Right now might be a good time to upgrade bronze.

Hey guys, I got this today. I traded for it. My trading partner disclosed in advance that in the past a kid apparently darkened the teeth of the monster and the heroes suspenders with a black pen. It probably doesn’t matter whether the grading companies consider this a color touch or not, since it’s just a low value cool book to be read and enjoyed. But out of curiosity is this considered a color touch by CGC standards? I’m guessing no since the intent was not to make the book look newer, I do think the young artist that used to own this book thought it made the book look cooler. Perhaps so. I kind of agree with the kid that dark teeth makes the monster look more menacing. What do you think? Is this a purple label candidate?

Lol. Thanks, but when I read this I laughed out loud. My wife’s real name is Karen.